According to Reuters, most of Yemen’s reported COVID-19 infections were discovered within the last ten days; health experts say this indicates community transmission. At the same time, the World Health Organization is closing dozens of its major health programs over the coming weeks.

Along with 24 million Yemenis requiring humanitarian aid to survive, “[15.9] million of the people in Yemen are already suffering from hunger [and] you’ve got five years of civil war that has ravaged the country,” Nathaniel explains.

“All of [these conditions] set it up to be a potentially catastrophic situation when you layer COVID-19 on top of it.”

More Yemen headlines here.

Arabian Peninsula vs. COVID-19

At press time, the number of COVID-19 cases in Yemen stood at a mere 128 with only 20 deaths. On Thursday, an NGO worker in southern Yemen warned of underreporting and described these conditions to BBC News:

Our teams on the ground are seeing how people are being sent away from hospitals, breathing heavily or even collapsing. People are dying because they can’t get the treatment that would normally save their lives. There are patients who go from hospital to hospital and yet cannot get admitted.

Arabian Peninsula countries identified in green. (Image courtest of Wikipedia)

“You’ve got hospitals that are closed that have been damaged by the war; you’ve got people dying that can’t even get treatment,” Nathaniel adds. “There are only 500 ventilators in the entire country, and only four labs that can that can even test for the virus.” More about facilities and resources here.

Yemen isn’t the only country struggling to contain COVID-19.

“The peoples of the Arabian Peninsula have been hit extremely hard and are suffering greatly as a result of the virus,” Nathaniel says.

“Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait — these countries are reporting significant numbers, in terms of positive tests and even deaths relative to the total population.”

Coronavirus prevalence in Saudi Arabia is prompting officials to reinstate restrictions, even during Ramadan – one of Islam’s most significant rituals. Face masks recently became mandatory in Qatar and Kuwait; yesterday, Bahrain’s COVID-19 caseload rose by 200.

How to help

Now that you know, how will you respond? Pray this difficult season would cause people of different faiths to seek and encounter Christ. Islam started in the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century and quickly became the region’s dominant religion.

(Photo courtesy of Milada Vigerova via Unsplash)

“Pray for all the people in the AP; just pray for the Lord’s mercy to bring a halt to the spread of this virus… it’s going to take supernatural mercy,” Nathaniel says.

“Pray believers will stay strong in their faith, trusting in the Word of God and His promises. It’s so hard not to be shaken by the situation and circumstances around us.”

Use the prompts listed alongside this article to pray specifically for Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula. Pray globally using this Prayercast special.

*– Name changed for security purposes.

Header image is a representative stock photo obtained via Pixabay.

The end goal is seeing biblically-healthy churches form and multiply among 90 unreached people groups of the Greater Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan.

“There are multiple organizations that try to reach people groups, and with some measure of success, but rarely do you bring all the ministry sectors together in one effort,” says David Pope, President of POPE Initiatives.

Specific efforts include “Bible translation, which typically exists in a silo; orality, prayer mobilization, any kind of media approach; along with the things we call the core missiological tasks: proclaiming the Gospel, making disciples, and developing leaders,” Pope says.

How to reach a region for Christ

Traditionally viewed as an Islamic stronghold, the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan are home to approximately 395 unreached people groups. While definitions vary, WorldAtlas.com identifies 19 countries as being part of the MENA region: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. POPE Initiatives and its partners expanded their regional focus to include Pakistan because it contains a large number of unreached people groups.

(Photo courtesy of Prayercast)

In unreached communities, most people have never heard of Jesus and have no access to the Gospel. There are no, or very few, indigenous missionaries because less than two-percent of an unreached people group knows Christ – that’s what keeps them “unreached.”

Thankfully, it’s all about to change. “We have a great opportunity to see the Gospel spread and churches multiply where they aren’t, at least not yet, in that part of the world,” Pope explains.

“If we can foster biblically healthy churches and multiply them in this region, it’ll impact the entire Muslim world.”

Instead of working in “silos”, hundreds of ministry workers are combining their skills and resources in one collaborative effort. This task is monumental, to say the least, and there’s a critical place for you in the story.

“I think everybody’s heard the three ‘pray, give, and go’ [responses] but, for us, prayer mobilization and intercession is not an afterthought. It’s actually the groundwork before we go in,” Pope says.

Find your place in the story

Join MNN and our sister ministry, Prayercast, in surrounding this initiative in prayer. Use this video to start.

(Stock photo obtained via Pixabay)

“We’re working with Prayercast to produce prayer awareness videos for every people group in this initiative, so we’re generating prayer on a grand scale globally,” Pope says. “We’re also engaging large-scale prayer networks around the world to [translate] these prayer tools into major languages like Portuguese, Mandarin, and Korean.”

If God’s blessed you with resources and you’d like to support this effort financially, contact POPE Initiatives here. “The beauty of this is you’re not really investing in a project… or a ministry partner, you’re investing in a process,” Pope says.

Sign up for daily emails here to learn which unreached people groups are next on the list.

Header image courtesy of Prayercast.

Christians face extremely high levels of persecution in the nine countries of the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Converting from Islam to Christianity is forbidden and even carries the death penalty in some AP nations.

The AP is also a hotbed for Islamic extremism. Church growth seems extremely unlikely in conditions like these. But that’s exactly what’s happening according to Chris*, a believer whose organization supports persecuted AP Christians.

(Wikipedia)

“Twenty years ago, [there were] no believers,” he says. Today, God is raising up Christian leaders in the region through Chris’s organization.

“I think that’s incredible, what God is doing…I want to tell you in order to get more engagement, to have you praying and…standing with us to reach out to the local believers.”

Some AP citizens spend their summer holidays in Europe, where believers reach them with the Good News. Others encounter Christ through dreams and visions. Media ministries reach yet another group of people.

In Yemen, the “[Holy] Spirit is working more ‘forcefully’; we see fruit and a lot of believers coming together,” Chris shares.

Praise God with us for this development, and please continue circling the Arabian Peninsula in prayer. The number of believers in the Arabian Peninsula is still very small, and they often get discouraged by their minuteness.

“Pray that God will open the gates,” Chris requests. “Although we are thankful for the believers that God is bringing, my prayer is that God will open the gates a little bit wider so that we could see 10 to 15 in one place coming to faith.”

Pray also for Christian women, as they experience isolation to an even further degree.

“[It’s a challenge for] ladies…to come out of their houses, even. That’s just the way that society has built itself,” explains Chris.

Ask the Lord to connect Chris and his organization with nonbelievers who’re seeking to truly know God. Pray strength and encouragement for the small but growing number of AP believers.

A Shiite-led pro-democracy
movement staged the protests, and the initial crackdown was brutal with martial
law declared, activists arrested, strikers fired and national dialogue
silenced. The crackdowns are continuing with raids on the leaders and
organizers.

Hundreds of demonstrators have been
arrested in security sweeps since the Bahraini authorities crushed the
Shiite-led protest movement last month.

Although Bahrain is a small
island with a population of fewer than one million people, their discontent has
major repercussions globally. The uprisings exacerbated Sunni-Shiite tensions
for Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, flanking neighbors. 

Saudi Arabia is also an important
ally of the U.S., which has a large navy presence based in Bahrain responsible
for the Gulf and part of the Indian Ocean.
A strong US/Britain response could further destabilize Sunni regions and
open the door for Iran to step in. 

The strain has created a dangerous
situation for Words of Hope. Lee DeYoung
explains, "The situation in Bahrain where there has been tension and
instability has been worrisome. Some training programs and some expansion of
our work there have been put on hold because of the uncertain situation."

However, in an effort to move
away from the sectarianism that permeates the society right now, DeYoung says their
team took a different approach to outreach. "Recently, our nightly Arabic programs have introduced new segments on
the topic of ‘Arabism,' focusing on elements of Arab culture which pre-date
Islam."

There is a unique distinction
here: most Arabs are Muslims, but most Muslims are not Arabs. In fact, many
Arabs are Christian, and most of them subscribe and ascribe to the "Arab
civilization" in which Islam occupies a central part.

Words of Hope airs a nightly 30-minute
show in a magazine format that covers all countries in the Arab League. DeYoung goes on to say that recent events prompted
a new segment in every program which highlights positive characteristics of
traditional Arab culture, some of which are more consistent with a Biblical
worldview than with radical Islam. "These
segments on Arabism deal with themes such as generosity, honor, pride, liberty.
The idea is to lead into a new and abundant life in Christ."

In doing so, the show's content avoids
religious criticism. By focusing on the
positive traits which seem inconsistent with radical Islam, thoughtful
listeners draw their own comparisons. Sometimes the Biblical connection is
explicitly identified. 

As the situation unfolds, DeYoung
urges prayer. While their program is
well-received, their team could be targeted by more radical elements. Keep praying. The door may only be open a little while
longer. "Not only is the situation more
tense, unsettled, unstable in some of these places, but the influences which
seem to be prompting that, in many cases, are giving a more prominent voice to
extreme religious elements."